AlchemicalAccessibilityandanEndtoEsotericism
MeaganTremblay
In its original conception, alchemy was understood as a secret art, an inherently religious or spiritual practice. The alleged works of the prophet Hermes Trismegistus, a godly being who representsacombinationofthegodsHermesandThoth,emphasizestheimportance of gnosis to thealchemicalprocess,inwhichthealchemistinquestionundergoesanequivalent change to the element that is being alchemically altered. In this we can see that historically alchemy has been the resultofmarryingthetwomodernconceptsofspiritualityandchemistry
The ancients did not consider it to beadividedconcept,butasthescientificrevolutionandthe printing press rose to prominence in Europe, attitudes around knowledge, which included chemical knowledge, shifted. With the easier distribution allotted by the printingpressandthe growing public interest in the natural sciences, it is thought that alchemy naturally branched into the two different paths of pure science and spirituality. This more spiritualisedelementof alchemy, characterized by its esoteric set dressing to disguise an inner chemical knowledge, persists in the seventeenth century in The Twelve Keys by Basil Valentine, in which these alchemical procedures for creating colloidal gold are hidden in visual ciphers with both chemical and spiritual implications. The opposing stream is showcased inMariedeMeudrac’s piece La Chymie Charitable et Facile, in which Meurdrac very directly explicates various chemical processes that would serve useful to her audience of noblewomen, such asbeautyor household products. Valentine and Meurdrac’s texts, both published within a century of one another, encapsulate the two opposing directions in which alchemy is lead in the seventeenth
century, one which eschews the former esoteric set dressing around alchemical practices and grounds its works in accessibility and usefulness of the general populous, and another which remains the original intent of keeping this chemical knowledge only accessible to learned adepts. The two practitioners' works clearly explicate the debate of values occurring in the practiceofalchemyatthetime.
The name Basil Valentine is likely not in reference toarealpractitionerbythattitle,as itwaspotentiallytheclaimedauthorofacompiledworksbyaBenedictinemonk,whosaidhe found and edited the works rather than authored them. This monk, Johann Thoelde, was involved in the production of mineral salts, making his authoring of thetextssensibleenough.
Various other works were attributed to Valentine or purportedly authored by him, making the authorship of these various texts more and more complex (Principe, “The Development ofthe BasilValentineCorpusandBiography”).Valentine’stext The Twelve Keys solelyconcernsthe transformation of metals, and it communicates this process with a combination of strange imagessteepedinalchemicalallegorywithsimilarlythemedtextualpassages.Itwasoriginally publishedwithjustthetexts,woodcutimageswereaddedlater(Principe,“TheDevelopmentof the Basil Valentine Corpus and Biography”, 2), both clarifyingandfurthermystifyingthetext. IntheFirstKey,theprocessof‘purifying’thegoldisdetailed:
If you would operate by means of our bodies,takeafiercegreywolf...heroams and is savage with hunger. Cast him to the body of the King, and when he has devoured it, burn him entirely to ashes in a great fire. By this process the King will be liberated ; and whenithasbeenperformedthricetheLionhasovercome the wolf..thus our body has been rendered fit for the first stage of our work” (BasilValentine, The Twelve Keys,1).
Theelementsofthisalchemicalprocessarenotcompletelyhiddenfromtheunlearnedreader,
onecanrealizethatsomesubstancemustbeburnedorheatedsomehowtoremoveimpurities, but the names of the metals and the exact processes required for the recipe are disguised. Alternate names are used for the metals, with antimony continually and onlyreferredtoasthe wolf, and gold as the King or Apollo. These tie into olderalchemicalunderstandings,withthe gold association withthesunandtheKingoftheHeavens,andantimonywithitssimilaritiesto leadbeingtiedtoSaturn.Onlyareaderwithpreexistingknowledgeoftheseassociationswould be able to comprehend the procedures in this text. No amounts are specified, and particular procedures are left up to the discretion of the aspiring practitioner A reader would have to possess some preexisting alchemicalknowledgeinordertomakeuseofthistextchemically,as it is shown to be chemically decipherable, but the initiatory knowledge that covers it complicates the understanding.Valentine’saudiencearethosewhoarealreadyinitiatedintothe alchemical community, or the literate, highly educated class who would either have the necessary esoteric background from initiation or from study. The knowledge of alchemy in Valentine is not something that is seen as a public good in need of being shared, but a secret knowledge that should only be accessible to those with this preexisting alchemical understanding.
Meurdrac’s La Chymie Charitable et Facile lists many different recipes for the benefit of her readers, all in her own vernacular French, and specifically written with the intent of inexperienced chemists, i.e the noblewomen who are the target audience of her writings, to attain this previously completely hidden knowledge. In the beginning ofherworkshestates“I have done my best to explain myself clearly and to make the operations accessible. I do not
wish to surpassmyunderstanding”(Meurdrac,EasyandAccessibleChemistry,2).Shesetsout on sharing this knowledge because she perceives that sharing her chemical knowledge in the most straightforward manner possible will bring benefits to many, especially those who could not previously access it. Women experienced many barriers to access learned knowledge in Meurdrac’s lifetime, alchemical or otherwise. Since Latin was taught in schools and women were not often attending schools or permitted to bepartofthelearnedclass,theabilitytoeven read these sources was extremely limited.Despitethis,booksoffamilyremediesbecamemore common in the sixteenth century, as the paper “Prescriptions for Women” by Meredith Ray states: “such activity [the collecting and compiling of recipes] by women was not uncommon...’the collecting of family remedies seems to have turned into a veritable feminine genre of publication’ beginning in the sixteenth century” (Ray, “PrescriptionsforWomen”,4).
Women were showing a growing interest in this expanding chemical knowledgethroughthese collections,andwerecreatingtheirowncompendiumsinordertowritedownandpassonthese procedures, Ray states “These works were, asEamonnotes,fundamentallyutilitarianinnature -interested,thatis,notinthetheoreticalunderpinningsof‘secret’knowledgetheypurportedto reveal, but rather in its practical application to daily life” (Ray, 6). Her works also discuss something commonly overlooked, the dangers of certain substances being appliedtothebody, and specifically warns women against putting mercury in productstobeusedonthebody.Her work is entirely didacticandexistsonlyforitsutility,andforMeurdractosharetheknowledge she has acquired in a way that is easy and accessible to others (hence thetitleofherwork).In her piece she reiterates that women have equal ability in mind to men, just that they lack the
opportunity to use or showcase it (Meurdrac 1). Her work is firmly within this literary and scientific movement in which chemical procedures are being shared with previously unwelcome audiences of laymen, who are not consideringanylayersofmysteriousalchemical secrecy, but only have interestinexactingdetailofprocedureanditsreasonableapplicationsto their own lives. The story of the inner transformationoftheadeptisgone,andthetrappingsof mysticality and secrecy are absent, leaving us with something that much more closely resembles a chemical tradition we canrecognisetoday Meurdrac’stextsasawholerepresenta microcosm of one end of the alchemical spectrum, (ironically very suited to alchemical tradition). Her compiling, publication, and complete openness about her procedures, even offering for her readers to contact her personally with their thoughts (Meurdrac 1), is a completerejectionofhowalchemywashistoricallypresented.
Both these authors offer a description of the ‘alchemical baths’ needed in their procedures, albeit for different purposes (one for distillation, one for the extraction of the philosopher’s stone). Meurdrac’s work describes the baths in a straightforward manner, with some spiritual allusionsonherworkingeneral,butnonethatmuddytheideasthatsheistrying to get across to her readership: “for this operation we must take the leaves and flowers of the aromatic that we wish to distill, and if they are fresh, fill up the alembic four fingersfromthe mouth; if they are dried, we must leave six fingers” (Meurdrac, 4). Basil Valentine’s bathsare almost entirely allegorised: they are referred to as the pre-marital rites of the King and the Queen; i.e. mercury and silver mixture as the Queen’s bath, and the combination of the ‘dragon’ (saltpeter) and the ‘eagle’ (ammonium chloride), given these names because of the
locations in which they are found. In the paper “Some Issues with the Historiography of Alchemy” by Lawrence Principe and William Newman, the usage of this extensive esoteric imageryisdiscussedasfollows:
The secrecy and “initiatic style” ubiquitous in works on transmutationledquite naturally to a tone of mystery absent from the later, more “open” writings of eighteenth-century chemistry The emphasis on secrecy led originally to the fairly common contemporaneous invocation of morality or divine agency as “gatekeepers” to secret knowledge (Larence Principe and Newman, “Some IssueswiththeHistoriographyofAlchemy,13).
They observethatthetoneofthesemoremystifiedalchemicalworks,suchasValentine’sinthe seventeenth century, have an underlying idea that the earlier alchemists are keeping the knowledge to themselves and fellow initiates,duetotheideathatthisalchemicalknowledgeis somehow sacred in nature. The text createsanouterfacadeinordertokeeptheuninitiatedout, which makes sense if the practitioner either has the idea that this knowledge is sacred and should be reserved for those with sacred standing, or thattheuninitiateddonotdeserveaccess to this knowledge because of their status. Valentine states at the end of his text:“Idonothere speak according to the customary manner of the Sages. But I must notspeaktooopenlyabout howtheinnergatesaretobeunlocked...ifyoudiscoverthis,youareinpossessionofthesecret, and can practice the art.” (Valentine 7). Valentine claims that his text is written in a more comprehensible manner than that of the older texts in his tradition, but that the secret of alchemy should still be encoded in this esoteric language, and the secrets ofalchemyaretobe kept to those who are worthy enough to uncover its secrets underneath all the esoteric set dressing. Meurdrac functions in complete opposition, stating in her text “This work is useful...many secrets beneficial to women, not only for conserving but also improving the
advantages they have received from Nature...I also asks this favour of those who wish to undertake this work that they distribute these remedies generously” (Meurdrac 1). Ratherthan encouraging her students to keep this alchemical knowledge to themselves, shetreatsalchemy asasharedpublicgoodthatshouldbeaccessibletoall,nomattertheirsex,class,oreducation.
Alchemy as we know it from history no longer exists, as it has now split into the two recognisable modern streams of chemistry and occultism. It is importanttorememberthatthis was not always the case, with the two inextricably tied up for most of time. It is only when science and chemistry became more accessible to the rest of the world outside this initiated elite that we see the two ways that historical alchemy branches off; one as the recognisable clear modern chemistry, the other withchemistryintactbutremaininghiddenunderitsesoteric coverings to keep outtheunlearnedreader.Overtime,theesotericismofthealchemicalcraftis losttohistory,leavinguswithonlythechemistryofmodernscienceweknowtoday.
WorksCited
BasilValentine. The Twelve Keys InWaite,A.E.(ed). The Hermetic Museum (London1893; reprintSameulWeiser1990).AccessedviaBrightspace.
Principe,LawrenceM.“TheDevelopmentoftheBasilValentineCorpusandBiograph: PseudepigraphicCorporaandParacelsianIdeas.” Early Science and Medicine,vol.24, no.5/6,2019,pp.549–72.
Meurdrac,Marie. La Chymie Charitable et Facile 1656,trans.KyleFraser,2022.Accessed viaBrightspace.
Ray,Meredith“PrescriptionsforWomen:Alchemy,MedicineandtheRenaissance Querelle
Des Femmes”.AccessedviaBrightspace.
Principe,LawrenceandWilliamNewman.“SomeIssueswiththeHistoriographyofAlchemy”.
Secrets of Nature: Astrology and Alchemy in Early Modern Europe,editedbyWilliam NewmanandAnthonyGrafton,MITPress,2001,pp.385-420
TheAmbiguityofModernity,MachinesandAmericanisminWeimarGermanyas
RepresentedinFritzLang’s Metropolis (1927)
CallieJurmain
Germany in the 1920s was marked by an intense period of change as the nation transitioned from a constitutionalmonarchytoademocraticrepublic.Thispost-warperiodwas defined by cultural transitions, especially as the ambivalent perception of machines and modernity came to a head. The technological innovations of World War I such as tanks and chemical weapons made possible unprecedentedlevelsofviolence.Germany,stillreelingfrom the loss oftheGreatWar,felttheseconsequencesfirsthand.Modernitythroughtechnologywas met with skepticism and contempt but also hope, and the UnitedStatesembodiedtheseideals. Fritz Lang’s Metropolis was created amid these conversations. His film shows significant influencesfromAmericanideologiesofTaylorismandFordism.Thefilmintentionallydisplays the consequences of misusing these ideals, and how their improper application harmed Germans. The film then gestures towards Taylor’s intended presentation of scientific management as the solution to the oppressive, alienated work those in the under-city experience.
The Weimar period arrived with Germansocietyexperiencingtheshockingdevastation caused by technological innovations developed during the war combined with the subsequent collapse of their economy as a result of the Treaty of Versailles. Anton Kaes quotes an unnamed German intellectual looking back in 1930: “the glorious discipline of technology appeared only in the form of tanks, mines, poison gas, for the purpose of annihilating
humankind.” While technology’s proven destructive force appeared through the war, it also 10 was the liberator from Germany’s economic despair Modernism and industrialization alleviated the burden of massive inflation. By the end of the 1920s, modernization enabled important industries (ie, chemical, electrical and machine-tool industries) to compete successfully in the world markets. Modernization was synonymous with America, and ideas 11 of rationalization described by Frederick Winslow Taylor and Henry Ford were particularly influential in Weimar Germany Rationalization was the utilization of science to create maximumoutputwithminimumlabour Taylor’s“scientificmanagement”meantreorganizing 12 factory production to reach optimal levels of productivity usingtechniquesofsurveillanceand employing management and engineering experts to achieve it. Fordism applied theseconcepts of optimization to the entire productive process and implemented the assembly line. These 13 ideas are reflected in Metropolis, where men are depicted moving mechanically through low-skilllabourtasks.
Rationalization gained popularity in Weimar Germany where economicrecoveryrelied heavily on Taylor and Ford’s ideas; arecoverymadepossiblethroughthe“adoptionofmodern (American) production methods; ‘rationalization became the great slogan of the 1920s.’”14 Ford’s autobiography was a massive success in Germany, with 200 000 copies sold in the
10AntonKaes,“Metropolis:City,Cinema,Modernity,”in Expressionist Utopias: Paradise, Metropolis, Architectural Fantasy, ed.T.O.Benson(LosAngeles:LosAngelesCountyMuseumofArt,1993),6
11 EricDWeitz, Weimar Germany: Promise and Tragedy (NewJersey:PrincetonUniversityPress,2007).149.
12Weitz, Promise, 149.
13 CharlesS Maier,“BetweenTaylorismandTechnocracy:EuropeanIdeologiesandtheVisionofIndustrial Productivityinthe1920s,” Journal of Contemporary History 5,no 2(1970):55
14WalterLaqueur, Weimar: A Cultural History 1918-1933 (NewYork:PerigeeBooks,1974):22
1920s. By the late 1920s, Germany emerged as an industrialized society with the industrial 15 sector employing twice as many workers as agriculture (from a roughlyequivalentlevelatthe turn of the century) and both trade and transport rose even faster Yet this rapid economic 16 modernization fuelled by the application of ‘rationalization’ was not accompanied by the promised economic prosperity for all in a manner that would benefit the broad mass of workers. Metropolis providesamoreaccuratedemonstrationofhowprosperitywasdistributed, through its under-city, showing the consequences ofuncheckedrationalization.Rationalization in Germany meant “a faster pace of work and longer industrial hours[which]resultedinmore industrial accidents, sometimes of the most serious nature, causing amputations, damaged lungs, and scalding burns. Industrial labour remained long, hard and dirty, and now became more intense and dangerous.” A 1928 compilation of women’s working lives in textile 17 factories revealed further similaritiestotheplightoftheworkersin Metropolis. Theydescribed their lives as a “monotonous routine governed by thealarmclock,factorywhistle,theclangof the machinery inthetextilefactories,andendlesshouseholdlabour.” Metropolis mirrorsthese 18 reports and their experience of grinding 10-hour shifts relieved only by the whistle signalling its end. The film shares further comparisons to the realities of factory life. Womendescribed 19 being on their feet all day or having to bend awkwardly to access the machines, similar tothe
15GünterBerghaus,“Girlkultur:Feminism,Americanism,andPopularEntertainmentinWeimarGermany,” Journal of Design History 1,No.3/4(1988):208.
16Laqueur, Cultural,24.
17Weitz, Promise, 153.
18 Weitz, Promise, 153
19 Metropolis, directedbyFritzLang(UFA,1927),48:07 https://wwwkanopycom/en/dal/watch/video/114333
unnamed worker Freder saw collapseatthestartofthefilm,causinganaccident. Onewoman20 stated, “You leave the factoryfeelingworkedtodeathandcompletelyexhausted” reminiscent21 oftheopeningsceneofthefilmwheretheexhaustedworkersshufflehomeaftertheirshifts.22
Modernity, and its accompanying technology and industry, became a topic of intense debate. To many, “mostoftheevilsofmodernityhadoriginatedintheUnitedStates…America stood for technological progress, but it also symbolized in many eyes the absence of culture, soulless materialism, the new barbarism.” There the growing importance of technology was met with contempt, with some calling it “the Americanization of German life.” German 23 rationalization was described by the German communist Party as “American factory and exploitation methods, American profits, but no Americanwages,onlyGermanhungerwages.”
When Lang projected these criticisms in Metropolis, he depicted a future in which there is
24 ruthless exploitation of workers, alienated completely from their labour without access to the upper city. They saw no benefits from their labour as they lived a life segregated from the progress and modernity above, while exhausting their bodies in their thankless contributionto improving the quality of other people’s lives. This loss of autonomy entailed a lossofculture, in Germany, and “some expressed horror at the effects of massculture…Theywereafraidofa kind of progress which they thought would inevitably lead to a technocratic dictatorship, and ultimately to wholesale destruction” The ending of Metropolis presents Lang’s idea of a 25
20 Metropolis, 15:09.
21 Weitz, Promise, 153.
22Metropolis, 04:22.
23 Laqueur, Cultural,32
24 Weitz, Promise, 153
25 Laqueur, Cultural,32
solution,mediatingthesedifferentviewstowardstechnologyandprogress.
The problemsin Metropolis stemfromapervertedimplementationofTaylor’sscientific management. Taylorism in its ideal form aims to resolve class antagonism through a union between the managers and workers. He states that “Scientific management…has for its very foundation the firm conviction that the true interests ofthetwo[employersandemployees]are one andthesame…itispossibletogivetheworkmanwhathemostwants--highwages--andthe employer what he wants--a low labor cost--for his manufactures.” Indeed it seems in 26 Metropolis that a purely exploitative relationship between the classes is bound to fail, but the resolutionisnottooverthrowtherulingclassbutrathertoworktogetherinharmony
These ideals of scientificmanagementfoundsuccessinWeimarGermanyacrossparty lines, from Communist, Socialist, Liberal and Fascists alike. For example, Socialist Max 27 Cohen, member of Sozialistische Monatshefte, advocated to the Second Congress of Räte delegates inApril1919andtheSPDCongressinWeimarinJuneforaTayloristicapproachto labour. He proposed a Labour Chamber as an upper house of the new Parliament that would include “professional men, entrepreneurs, and labour representatives [who]wouldco-operate to safeguard production and ward offrashnationalizationprojects.” Cohensawsocialismas 28 a way to increase productivity which required a partnership between these groups which would eliminate the need for worker control. The language of seeking harmony is 29 reminiscent of the end of Metropolis, with the historical context that Lang would have had towards Taylorism. Hecouldhavebeeninspiredbyitspromisesandvieweditasawayoutof
26FrederickW.Taylor, The Principles of Scientific Management (NewYork:DoverPublications,1998).4.
27 Berghaus,“Girlkultur,”208
28 Maier,“Taylorism,”49
29 Maier,“Taylorism,”49
technologicalruinandexploitation:
Taylor's application of engineering to labour relations and his idea of technology as a social arbiter which reduced class confrontation and social division were complemented by Ford's theories ofegalitariancapitalismbased on mass consumption. His reorganization of the entire production process introduction of assembly line, use of an incentive system based on piece-wages, etc.--led to an enhanced productivity and expanding output, the profitsofwhichweresharedbybothinvestorsandworkers.30
In Germany, ‘rationalization’ vis a vis Taylorism and Fordism was central to reducing oppositiontowardstechnologyandhelpedtobringaboutGermany’s“NewMachineAge.”31
‘Rationalization’ or scientific management doesnotsolvetheotherproblempresented in Metropolis, the loss of culture. Metropolis reflected many of the criticisms towards technology, like those presented by German academic George Steinhausen in 1929 who saw the latest developments inWeimarGermanyasalmostentirelynegative;viewingitslegacyas a “general cultural decline” and its only real contribution to society as “sports and technology.” The society presented in Metropolis mimicked these criticisms; viewers are 32 never shown that there is areligion,otherthanindustry,orinFreder’shallucinations.Instead, the viewer is shown activity for activity’s sake in the city Freder idles in an Edenic garden, entertained by various women, and participates in sport for fun. At the end of Metropolis, 33 Lang suggests a solution to this gap of culture. He alludes to a more democratic situation of power, rather than a concentration ofpowerinthehandsofoneman,JohFredersen.Thiswas a direction that the Republic attempted with its new Weimarconstitution,intendedtobeboth
30 Berghaus,“Girlkultur,”208.
31 Berghaus,“Girlkultur,”208
32 Laqueur,Cultural,36
33 Metropolis:07:20
“modern and to embody the spirit of the nineteenth-century German democratic tradition...It struck a note of compromise, not always successfully, between conflicting social, religious and regional interests.” This attempt at ideal governance, rooted in tradition, wasembodied 34 byMariaandFreder’scomingtogetherbeforetheunionofFredersonandtheheadworker 35
Historian Ludmilla Jordanova highlighted some of the inaccuracies in Lang’s representation of scientific management in Metropolis. She argued it captured both “the subservience of people to the work process and thetyrannyoftime andexaggeratedthem, as in a caricature, to heighten the viewer's sense of industrial inhumanity.” However, Jordanova noted the absence of two central features important to scientific management: firstly, management itself and the technical experts and, secondly, fair wages. She stated that “the reasoning behind this was perfectly plain higherincomesunderminedclasssolidarity, enhancedsocialmobility,andthroughthepowertoconsumethatbetterincomesoffered,drew working people into a middle-class lifestyle. In theory at least the lure of moving into the professionalandmanagerialclasseswouldundermineanypossiblediscontents.”36
While it is true that Lang misses these key pillars in Taylorist ideology, Metropolis depicts a view of the applied ideology from workers’ own accounts oftheirexperienceswith this ideology during the Weimar period. Before the end of the film there was no mediator between employer and employee and the work the employees did was purely exploitative. Langdidnotviewanabandonmentoftechnologyasthesolution,asitcouldhavecatastrophic
34 Laqueur,Cultural,11.
35 Metropolis:2:25:37.
36 LudmillaJordanova,“Science,Machines,andGender,”inFritzLang’sMetropolis:Cinematic VisionsofTechnologyandFear,ed M MindenandH Bachmann,(NewYork:CamdenHouse,2000), 181
results like the flooding of the undercity Instead, his solution involved a Tayloristic style mediation of worker to the employer with a middleman (Freder) to attempt to illustrate the potential rationalism has to create a more equitable situation under capitalism. Whether this was a utopian ideal or real possibility remained unanswered in the film, but Lang later identified it as a “fairy tale-definitely.” Metropolis embodied Weimar Germany, as it strove 37 to establish a path to its future success, one with intense modernization but afraid of its potential and attached to tradition. In his consideration of the ideal government, Fritz Lang attemptedtoanswerthesequestionswiththehopeofreconciliation.
37 Kaes,Cinema,3
Bibliography
Berghaus,Günter “Girlkultur:Feminism,Americanism,andPopularEntertainmentin WeimarGermany.” Journal of Design History 1,no.3/4(1988):193-219.
Jordanova,Ludmilla.“Science,Machines,andGender.”InFritzLang’s Metropolis: Cinematic Visions of Technology and Fear. EditedbyMichaelMindenandHolger Bachmann,pp.181-95.NewYork:CamdenHouse,2000.
Kaes,Anton.“Metropolis:City,Cinema,Modernity.”In Expressionist Utopias: Paradise, Metropolis, Architectural Fantasy EditedbyTimothyO.Benson,pp.146-165.Los Angeles:LosAngelesCountyMuseumofArt,1993.
Lang,Fritz,dir. Metropolis.1927;Germany:UFA.
Laqueur,Walter Weimar: A Cultural History 1918-1933 NewYork:PerigeeBooks,1974.
Maier,Charles.S.“BetweenTaylorismandTechnocracy:EuropeanIdeologiesandtheVision ofIndustrialProductivityinthe1920s.” Journal of Contemporary History 5, no.2, (1970):27-61.
Taylor,FrederickW. The Principles of Scientific Management. NewYork:Dover Publications,1998.
Weitz,Eric.D. Weimar Germany: Promise and Tragedy. NewJersey:PrincetonUniversity Press,2007.
1950sAestheticsandTimelessnessin Loki
EleanorFriddell
The television show Loki, releasedbetween2021and2023,chroniclestheproliferation of a multiplicity of timelines intheMarvelCinematicUniverse,assetinmotionbytheheroics of fan-favourite character Loki. Throughout both seasons, theplotofLokiisovershadowedby a powerful bureaucratic agency existing outside of time and tasked with protecting its proper flow: the Time Variance Authority, or TVA. This seemingly omnipotent organizationbecomes Loki’s primary enemy as he fights to free both himself and the burgeoning multiverse from their control. Loki incorporates elements from many genres, primarily science fiction and fantasy films, action thrillers and detective dramas, none of which explain why its production design consistently and intentionally employs 1950saestheticsinassociationwiththeTVA.To start, aninvestigationintothephilosophyoftimetravelmedia,aswellastheculturalnarratives surrounding midcentury design, sheds some light onto thisunlikelydesignchoice.Scholarship on time travel by Angela Dimitrakaki and Miltos Tsiantis provides some context as to how science fiction films use time travel narratives in order to challenge the control over time exerted by real-world capitalistic forces. Additionally, an exploration of the of the work of interior designer T. H. Robsjohn-Gibbings reveals an intentionality behind the perceived timelessness of midcentury design. Brutalist architecture is also briefly discussed, contextualizing the popular association of this visual style with alienation and control. Then, having laid the groundwork for theconnectionbetweenthetimelessnessoftheTVAand1950s aesthetics, an analysis of theparticularvisualvocabularyofLokicanbegin.Forexample,TVA
propaganda materials and technology use 1950s aesthetics to directly communicate the organization’s authoritarian nature. The architecture of the TVA itself employs a pastiche of midcentury design principles and references in order to make it seem futuristic and dated at once, setting it apart from any particular artistic movement and making explicit the inseparability of the TVA from temporal domination. Moreover, its retro aesthetic is so idealized as to be ahistorical, representing the current cultural memory ofthe1950smorethan the reality of the era, a fact which itself supports the show’s presentation of the TVA as the archetypal sinister bureaucracy. Therefore, through the use of idealized 1950s aesthetics, Loki not only visually signals the timelessness of the TVA, but italsodemonstratesthenecessityof replacingitseternalstatusquowithafreer,morefluidtimeline.
Time travel narratives inherently involve conflicts between temporal stability and chaos, reflecting discussions about freedom or the lack thereof in society at large. Angela Dimitrakaki and Miltos Tsiantis address this in their article “Terminators, Monkeys and Mass Culture: The carnival of time in science fiction films,” wherein they argue that “the current fascination with the time travel motif can be understood in terms of an oppositional cultural narrative running countertodominantformsoftemporalitywithincapitalism.” DimitrakakiandTsiantispositthat
38 capitalistic forces impose “temporal norms” onto society, replacing “natural rhythms” with "the rhythm of commodity production and consumption,” while forcing the populationtocomplyvia the power of the state. In this type of environment, time does not exist in its natural form,
39
38 AngelaDimitrakakiandMiltosTsiantis,“Terminators,MonkeysandMassCulture:Thecarnivalof timeinsciencefictionfilms,”Time&Societyvol 11(2002):p 209 https://doi-orgezproxylibrarydalca/101177/0961463X02011002003
39 AngelaDimitrakakiandMiltosTsiantis,“Terminators,MonkeysandMassCulture,”p 213
whatever that may be. Instead, time is regimented, tightly controlled, forced to be linear and purely deterministic, with no space for freedom or chaos to emerge. Such a static modeloftime could even beseenastimeless,asortofeternalpresentwithnomeaningfulfuture.Consequently,
Dimitrakaki and Tsiantis suggest that time travel narratives challenge this conception oftimeby returning control to the temporally disenfranchised, as “…the potentially subversive element of time travel films lies precisely in a particular conceptualization and experience of time and history as cyclical and in flux.” Viewing time as chaotic and ever-changing rather than static 40 and deterministic suggests the “reversibility of events and ambivalence of the final outcome,” allowing “the possibility of transformation.” In this way time travel destabilizes the temporal 41 status quo, allowingchangestobemadetothepast,presentandfuturewithpotentiallyenormous effects as said changes ripple throughout the timeline. Thus, in a science fiction universe in which time travel is possible, preventing this kind of destabilization would be key for any organization which seeks to enforce a static universal order. It is the ensuing conflict between timelessness and temporal chaos which motivates the plot-line of Loki,andwhichmakestheuse of design elements that visually convey this temporalsubjectmattertotheaudiencethematically appropriate.
Next, it is necessary to understand what makes 1950s aesthetics so effective at communicating “timelessness” to the audience of a modern science fiction programme. One reason for this arises from the original designers themselves,someofwhompurposefullysetout tocreatetimelessvisualstyles.Forexample,influentialmidcenturyAmericaninteriordesignerT.
40 AngelaDimitrakakiandMiltosTsiantis,“Terminators,MonkeysandMassCulture,”p 209
41 AngelaDimitrakakiandMiltosTsiantis,“Terminators,MonkeysandMassCulture,”p 218
H. Robsjohn-Gibbings referred to his classics-infused design philosophy as sans époque, meaning “timeless” in French. InthiswayRobsjohn-Gibbingsexemplifiedthemodernistdesire 42 to erase the ornate complications of nineteenth century EuropeanandAmericandesigninfavour of a simple, elegant stylethatcouldstandthetestoftime.Hisidealsourceforthissimplicitywas Ancient Greece, as he believed that “the ‘timeless,’ universal appeal ofclassicalGreekfurniture stood out as something of both aesthetic merit and greater truth… For him, a connection to the classical world imbued hisworkwithalastingbeautythatwasatoncemodernandimperviousto fashion.” The periodic return to classical antiquity for design inspiration is a common thread 43 linking many European art movements, such as the Renaissance and Neoclassicism, perhaps creating a sense of timeless elegance and continuity across historical eras which Robsjohn-Gibbings sought to access. Visually, this classics-oriented design philosophy resulted in features such as slanted and tapered table andchairlegs,anemphasisonnaturalmaterialsand geometric furniture silhouettes, arevivalofclassicalelementslikemosaicsandintricatelycarved decorative statuary, and low, wide furniture reminiscent of Ancient Greek klismos chairs.44 Interestingly, Robsjohn-Gibbings became disaffected with the anonymityofmodernistaesthetics in the mid-1950s, as he “had concluded that the generic quality of mid-century modernism was doomed to create this sense of alienation in people.” The timelessnessandsimplicityofdesign 45 that he championed had, ironically, gone too far, leading to isolation and disaffection instead of eleganceandliberation.
42 JamesBuresh,“T.H.Robsjohn-Gibbings:TimelessMid-CenturyModernDesign,” Archives of American Art Journal vol.48,no.1/2(Spring2009):p.32.https://www.jstor.org/stable/40649414.
43 JamesBuresh,“T H Robsjohn-Gibbings,”p 32
44 JamesBuresh,“T H Robsjohn-Gibbings,”p 37-39
45 JamesBuresh,“T H Robsjohn-Gibbings,”p 41
This souring of perception is palpable in the reception of other midcentury architectural movements as well, such as Brutalism. A prototypical example of American Brutalist architecture is the Breuer building, designed by Marcel Breuer in order to house the Whitney MuseumofAmericanArtinNewYorkCity TheBreuerbuildingislargeandimposing,likened 46 in shape to an “inverted ziggurat”, with its uniform grey graniteexteriorandbulkyshapesetting it dramatically apart from the surrounding neighbourhood. Breuer createditwiththeoptimistic 47 intention of representing “a new epoch in the history of man, the realization of oneofhisoldest ambitions: the defeat of gravity,” through the “heavy lightness” of the structure. However, the 48 design of the Breuer building can also be interpreted as oppressive, since it takes theformofan enormous block of grey stone only connected to the adjoining sidewalk by a single concrete bridge, having only a few trapezoidal windows that jut out at strange angles, and whoseinterior layout was intended to carefully control the flow of visitors through the museum. Even less 49 hospitable are Brutalist government buildings like the Boston City Hall, an enormous concrete edifice seemingly perched on massive stilts, whose generally regular surface of rectangular windows is interrupted occasionally by large blocky outcroppings. Although architects and 50 critics praised its innovative design and “monumentality” at the time of its construction, it was remarkably unpopular with the public, generally considered tobequiteugly. Eventhoughatits 51
46 BarryBergdoll,“MarcelBreuer:BauhausTradition,BrutalistInvention,” The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin (Summer2016),p 33 https://wwwmetmuseumorg/met-publications/marcel-breuer-bauhaus-tradition-brutalist-invention See https://whitneyorg/about/breuer-buildingforpicturesoftheBreuerbuilding
47 BarryBergdoll,“MarcelBreuer:BauhausTradition,BrutalistInvention,”p.35.
48 BarryBergdoll,“MarcelBreuer:BauhausTradition,BrutalistInvention,”p.33,35.
49 BarryBergdoll,“MarcelBreuer:BauhausTradition,BrutalistInvention,”p.35-37.
50 TomAcitelli,“BostonCityHallTurns50,”CurbedBoston,VoxMedia,January7,2019 https://bostoncurbedcom/2019/1/7/18168336/boston-city-hall-turns-50-2019
51 TomAcitelli,“BostonCityHallTurns50”
inception Brutalism focused on raw materials and a utopian ideal of interrelated social living, through being adopted by powerful institutions it grewovertimetobesynonymousinthepublic consciousness with the oppressive powerofeithercapitalismorcommunism,aswellasthestate.
It is quite understandable that passersby would feel intimidated by buildings as immense and
52 uninviting as the Breuer building and Boston City Hall, to say nothing of the spectre of Soviet architecture hanging over the American psyche at the time. Towering over and subsuming the individual, this style of modernist construction emerged alongside the postwar paradigm of the seemingly eternal bureaucratic government agency, only confirming the alienation lamented by Robsjohn-Gibbings. Thus an association between midcentury aesthetics and timelessness, impersonality,andbureaucracyishistoricallygrounded.
All three of these characteristics feature strongly in Loki, not only thematically but visually, as the vast majority of the showtakesplacewithintheanonymous,labyrinthinehallsof the TVA’s eternal headquarters. In the first episode, the audience learns that time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe takes the form of a single, linear timeline known as the “Sacred Timeline”, with no possibilityofalternateuniverses,branches,loopsoranyothertemporalirregularities;the apparent necessity of this structure is explained as anintegralpartoftheTVA’sfoundingmyth.53 Loki begins with the eponymous Loki being arrested by the TVA for the crime of creating a branch in the timeline, and this myth is delivered to him via a retro-style hand-drawn animated cartoon,narratedbytheTVA’smascotandvirtualassistantMissMinutes. Accordingtoher, 54
52 DirkvandenHeuvel,“Betweenbrutalists:TheBanhamhypothesisandtheSmithsonwayoflife,” The Journal of Architecture vol.20,no.2(2015):p.295,300-301.https://doi.org/10.1080/13602365.2015.1027721.
53 Loki,season1,episode1,“GloriousPurpose,”directedbyKateHerron,writtenbyMichaelWaldron,released June9,2021onDisney+,streamedonDisney+
54 Loki,season1,episode1,“GloriousPurpose”
Long ago, there was a vast multiversal war Countless unique timelines battled each other for supremacy, nearly resulting in the total destruction of...well, everything. But then, the all-knowing Time-Keepers emerged, bringing peace by reorganizing the multiverse into a single timeline, the Sacred Timeline. Now, the Time-Keepers protect and preserve the proper flow of time for everyone and everything. But sometimes, people like you veer off the path the Time-Keepers created. […] The TVA has stepped in to fix your mistake andsettimebackonits predetermined path. Now that your actions have left you without a place on the timeline,youmuststandtrialforyouroffenses.55
This concise piece of world-building tells the audience everything they need to know about the nature of time under the TVA; that it is singular and static, sacred and protected by deities for a very good reason, and in need of constant attention and careful “pruning”, i.e. deletion, of any additional emergent timelines, lest chaos break out. Equally thematically resonant, however, are the aesthetics surrounding its delivery; Miss Minutes is depicted as a bright orange, anthropomorphic cartoon clock, who delivers this authoritarian message with the saccharine positivity of a classic Saturday morning cartoon. This is revealed by Loki production designer 56
Kasra Farahani in an interview with Polygon to be an intentional reference to midcentury propaganda shorts; in fact, its particular inspiration was an animated instructional video created by the U.S. Air Force. In this way, the retro style of the Miss Minutes cartoon creates a direct 57 visuallinkbetween1950saestheticsandbureaucraticcontroloverthetimeline.
As the plot of Loki progresses, the show’s productiondesignemploys1950saestheticsto continuously signal the nefarious power of the TVA. As stated above, most of the show takes
55 Loki,season1,episode1,“GloriousPurpose.”
56 Loki,season1,episode1,“GloriousPurpose.”
57 ToussaintEgan,“LokiproductiondesignerKasraFarahanionthevisualreferencesyouneedanarchitecture degreetocatch,”Polygon,VoxMedia,July13,2021
https://wwwpolygoncom/22575681/loki-tva-void-visual-influences-art-design-secrets
place within the uncanny realm the TVA occupies outside of space and time; an infinite panorama is revealed the first time Loki walks past a window, filled with concrete and metal modernist architecture stretching off in all directions as if floating within an infinite, three-dimensional Cartesian grid. This otherworldly space is undoubtedlyfuturistic,butclearly 58 dated at the same time, its fantastical spires and flying vehicles strongly reminiscent of science fiction films andartworksfromthe1940sand50s.Farahanirevealsthatthisshotwasinspiredby futuristic architectural sketches made by midcentury architect Oscar Niemeyer Within the 59 buildings of the TVA itself, the midcentury architectural and design influences are even clearer; wide, warmly lit rooms with low ceilings, recessed lights arranged in honeycomb-like patterns, dark wood panelling and raw concrete, low-set chairs and couches, bold geometric forms, and molded plastic furniture in garish shades of orange grace its every room. Blending these 60 disparate midcentury design elements adds to the TVA’s unsettling, timeless feel, as Farahani explains:
London style brutalism was a big influence, as well as Soviet influence…there was a goal tocreateacontrast,almostafeelingofcognitivedissonance,byusing the warm and whimsy of American mid-century modernism as a kind of skin. […] You walk into the receiving room, and it’s these beautiful warm wood browns and bright orange Saarinen inspired desks. But then, you also immediately realize that the doors all look the same and it’s a labyrinth; you’re trapped,andyoudon’tknowhowtogetoutthewayyoucame.61
58 Loki,season1,episode1,“GloriousPurpose”
59 ToussaintEgan,“LokiproductiondesignerKasraFarahanionthevisualreferencesyouneedanarchitecture degreetocatch”Seehttps://commonswikimediaorg/wiki/File:Palacio do Planaltojpegforanexampleof architecturebyNiemeyer.
60 RainNoe,"TheSetsofLoki:Mad-CenturyModernism,”Core77,November16,2023. https://www.core77.com/posts/126276/The-Sets-of-Loki-Mad-Century-Modernism.Seethislinkforrelevant picturesofthesetdesignof Loki
61 ToussaintEgan,“LokiproductiondesignerKasraFarahanionthevisualreferencesyouneedanarchitecture degreetocatch”
Through this pastiche of midcentury aesthetics, the timeless and artificial nature of this organization ismadeverycleartotheaudience.Moreover,thisenvironmentexistsonlyforwork, and everyone in it lives onlytofurtherthebureaucracy;noprivatelivingspacesareshowninthe show’s entire runtime, only endless workspaces, conference rooms, cafeterias, archives, holding cells, and maze-like hallways full of unsleeping immortal workers. Ever-present are patterned rugs and elaborate mosaics repletewiththeTVAlogo,clockandhourglassimagery,andportraits of the supposedly all-powerful Time Keepers, adorning elevator lobbies and war strategy rooms alike, hearkening back to the classical revival designs of Robsjohn-Gibbings but with a flashy, hotel-lobby twist. Even the sconces lining the corridor walls take the form of modernist brass 62 hourglasses. These interior design details make it abundantly clear that the TVA's 1950s-style 63 aesthetics are inseparable from the power it holds over time, since time-related motifs are inseparable from the midcentury-styled environment in which the TVA’s workers maintain the eternalstatusquo.
One of the primary stylistic influences on Loki’s production design is Brutalism, which informs the ever-present raw concrete and the multitude of imposing megastructures appearing throughout the show. One particular Brutalist architectural reference revealed by Farahani is to the lobby of the aforementionedBreuerbuilding,whosedistinctivelowceilingcoveredinround, white, inverteddish-likelampswasintentionallyrecreatedfortheTVA’swaitingroominorderto create the illusion of being watched by “a big sea of eyeballs”. Paired with a very low ceiling 64
62 RainNoe,"TheSetsofLoki:Mad-CenturyModernism.”
63 Loki,season1,episode1,“GloriousPurpose”
64 ToussaintEgan,“LokiproductiondesignerKasraFarahanionthevisualreferencesyouneedanarchitecture degreetocatch”Seehttps://wwwcore77com/posts/126276/The-Sets-of-Loki-Mad-Century-Modernismand
and a queueing setup reminiscent of a particularly dreary government office, theuncomfortable, alienating atmosphere of the space is intensified further Bolstered by this reference to aniconic example of midcentury Brutalist architecture,thiswaitingroomisatoncebizarreandbelievable, the headquarters of an impossible, timeless bureaucracy made real. Another reference to extant Brutalist architecture can be found in the scenes taking place in the TVA archives, which were filmed in the atrium of the Atlanta Marriott MarquisHotel. Thearchivesastheyappearin Loki 65 are digitally altered, featuring layer after layer of research cubicles and archivestacksstretching off to infinity and watched over by massive statues of the Time Keepers, but the underlying structure remains recognizable. Its concrete cladding, repeated geometric forms and enormous 66 scale communicate power, monumentality, and permanence, visually reinforcing the TVA’s seemingly ironclad control over time. Through these direct visual references to real-world architecture, Loki grounds its fantastical setting while reinforcing theeverlastingauthorityofthe TVA, leveraging the audience’s pre-existing associations between bureaucratic control and midcenturyBrutalistdesign.
Another key element of Loki’s commentary on time is explored through the Temporal Loom, a fantastical science fiction apparatus revealed in the show’s second season. After the events of the first season, many TVA personnel realize the ethical implications of destroying errant timelines and choose to stop doing so, leading to amassiveproliferationoftimelines;itis
65 “AtlantaMarriottMarquis,”Wikipedia,TheFreeEncyclopedia,accessedDecember4,2024. https://enwikipediaorg/wiki/Atlanta Marriott Marquis Seethislinkforrelevantarchitecturalpictures https://whitney.org/about/breuer-buildingforpicturesoftheTVAwaitingroomandtheBreuerbuildinglobby, respectively.
66 Loki,season1,episode2,“TheVariant,”directedbyKateHerron,writtenbyElissaKarasik,releasedJune16, 2021onDisney+,streamedonDisney+
subsequently revealed that the Temporal Loom, “where raw time is refined into physical timeline,” has become overloaded with temporal energy and will imminentlyfail,destroyingthe TVA and every timeline in the newly-born multiverse along with it. The Temporal Loom 67 represents how dependent the TVA truly isuponclosecontrolofthetimeline,asoncetheSacred Timeline is no more, an alternative to the Loom must quickly be found. Naturally, midcentury aesthetics are heavily involved in the many scenes playing out around the Temporal Loom. For example, while trying to repair the Loom, various characters don a protective suit which is strongly evocative of spacesuits from early science fiction media; it is impractically bulky, trimmed in teal and orange, featuring a retro triangular visor and a comically large accordion-pleated air supply tube attached totheback,reminiscentofahotairexhaustpipefrom a dryer. Moreover, while the protagonists attempt to solve the imminent collapse of the Loom, 68 they do so in a control room that calls to mind imagery from the early days of NASA. This control room is semi-circular, with bright teal composite floors, a wall of windows facing the Loom, and antique computer workstations all around the back wall, comprised of cathode-ray monitors housed in molded turquoiseplasticsurroundedbyanalogknobsanddialsthatappearas if they could have been sourced from a midcentury nuclear power plant. It becomes clearover 69 the course of the second season that the TVA’s bureaucratic, technology-dependent approach is entirely insufficient to save the multiverse,andLokiisforcedtousehisdivinepowerstodestroy the Loom and replace it with none other than himself, personally overseeing the timelines in a
67 Loki,season2,episode1,“Ouroboros,”directedbyJustinBensonandAaronMoorhead,writtenbyEricMartin, releasedOctober5,2023onDisney+,streamedonDisney+
68 Loki,season2,episode1,“Ouroboros”
69 Loki,season2,episode1,“Ouroboros”
symbolic recreation of Yggdrasil, the tree which supports the nine realms ofNorsemythology 70
This final episode even shares its title with the first episode, “Glorious Purpose”, indicatingthat time has been made cyclical and organic once more, representing its ultimate liberation.71 Therefore, by the end of Loki, time has been liberated from bureaucratic control and rigid technology alike. Although the timeless perspective and 1950s aesthetics of the TVA remain, they are relegated to being shepherds of a natural, ever-evolving timeline, rather than tyrants presiding over an eternalstatusquo.JustasinDimitrakakiandTsiantis’analysis,theplotof Loki uses time travel to challenge temporal norms within its own universe, commenting obliquelyon real-world social discontents while supported sub-textually by the retro aesthetics of its productiondesign.
Crucially, the science fiction-inspired protective suit described above reveals one more layer of meaning behind the retro aesthetics in Loki; that while being directly inspired by midcentury aesthetics, the show’s production design is not a period-accurate representation. Instead, itdepictsanidealized,paradigmaticreflectionofthe1950sasviewedbyacontemporary audience with contemporary sensibilities. The protective suit worn to repair the Loom never existed in reality, nor did anythinglikeit,butwhatmattersisthatitfeelsplausiblymidcenturyto viewers. This motivates the deliberate mixing of disparate midcentury styles described by Farahani in yet another way, since it not only plays a role in-universe by asserting the uncanny timelessness of the TVA, but it also communicates with the audience on a meta-textual level.
Real-worldaestheticelementsfromerasoutsidethe1950splayintothis Crucially, the science
70 Loki,season2,episode6,“GloriousPurpose,”directedbyAaronMoorheadandJustinBenson,writtenbyEric Martin,releasedNovember9,2023onDisney+,streamedonDisney+
71 Loki,season2,episode6,“GloriousPurpose”
fiction-inspired protective suit described above reveals one more layer of meaning behind the retro aesthetics in Loki; that while being directly inspired by midcentury aesthetics, the show’s production design is not a period-accurate representation. Instead, it depicts an idealized, paradigmatic reflection of the 1950s as viewed by a contemporary audience with contemporary sensibilities. The protective suit worn to repair the Loom never existed in reality, nor did anything like it, but what matters is that it feels plausibly midcentury toviewers.Thismotivates the deliberate mixing of disparate midcentury styles described by Farahani in yet another way, since it not only plays a rolein-universebyassertingtheuncannytimelessnessoftheTVA,butit also communicateswiththeaudienceonameta-textuallevel.Real-worldaestheticelementsfrom eras outside the 1950s play into this archetypal, imagined past; for example, the sets of Loki are predominantly painted in shades of brown and orange, colours typically associated with the 1970s rather than the 1950s. Furthermore, none of the examples of Brutalist architecture referenced above were even created in the 1950s: the Breuer building was designedin1963,the design for theBostonCityHallwaspubliclypresentedin1962,andtheAtlantaMarriottMarquis Hotel was completed in1985,twenty-fiveyearsaftertheendoftheeraathand. However,these 72 anachronisms do not detract from the effectiveness of Loki’s visual vocabulary, since to modern viewers, the particular details of the design movements popular in each era seem practically interchangeable. What matters most for storytelling purposes is the popular association of midcentury aesthetics with timelessness, bureaucracy and control, and the ensuing narrative necessity of challenging any organizationpaintedinthecolours,bothmetaphoricalandliteral,of
72 BarryBergdoll,“MarcelBreuer:BauhausTradition,BrutalistInvention,”p 33,TomAcitelli,“BostonCityHall Turns50,”and“AtlantaMarriottMarquis,”Wikipedia
Cold War-era governmental overreach. In this way, the anachronistic whirlwind of retro design elements featured in Loki appeals to collective memory in order to sub-textually justify Loki’s fightforhisownfreedomaswellasthatofthenewlycreatedmultiverse.
After analyzing the depiction of time in Loki, the frequent use of retro aesthetics in its depiction of the TVA, and the meaningful intersections of the two, the use of said aesthetics seems like a natural choice. The proposition that time travel narratives areinherentlysubversive in their challenge of the status quo, as presented by Dimitrakaki and Tsiantis, maps onto the primary conflict in Loki between timelessness and temporal freedom, showing the fundamental connection between authoritarianism and control over time. Next, the deliberate association posited byT.H.Robsjohn-Gibbingsbetweentimelessnessandmidcenturymoderndesign,aswell as thepopularconceptionofBrutalistarchitectureasalienatingandoppressive,providehistorical motivation for why timelessness and bureaucracy are associated with midcentury design in the public consciousness. With this context in mind, an analysis of the production design of Loki reveals how the Miss Minutes propaganda cartoon creates a purposeful association between control over the timeline and retro aesthetics right from the beginning of the show. This connection only strengthens as the audience learns more about the TVA. Its anachronistic pastiche of different midcentury design influences, direct references to real-world Brutalist architecture, and total dependence on the Temporal Loom reveal how profoundly its timeless vantage point outside the rigidly controlled Sacred Timeline informs its visual vocabulary. Finally, the frequent deviations from strictly 1950s visual design in reference to the TVAreflect the modern audience for which Loki was written, for whom mid-century aesthetics are largely
interchangeable, meaning that the TVA’s oppressive nature can be effectively signalled using paradigmatic elements from a variety of midcentury designmovements.Inthisway,theplotand themes of Loki are strongly supported by its use of idealized 1950s aesthetics, which communicate to the audience exactly what kind of organization the TVA is and motivate the necessityofsystemicchangewithintheuniverseoftheshow
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“AtlantaMarriottMarquis.”Wikipedia,TheFreeEncyclopedia.AccessedDecember4,2024.
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TheExtendedLineasaTemplateofTruthinGrassmann's Ausdehnunslehre
JaneCourtney
In 1844, Hermann Grassmann published the first edition of the Ausdehnungslehre, the title roughly translating to 'TheCalculusofExtension'(Lewis2011,109).Althoughitsmeritwas hardly recognized at first, its later popularity after the publication ofitssecondeditionledtothe teachings of the Ausdehnungslehre formingthebasisofthemodernfieldoflinearalgebra(Lewis 1995, iv). In a close reading of the forward and the introduction to the first edition of the Ausdehnungslehre (which will from now on be referred to as the A1), which contains a philosophical basis for the work, the theme of unity continually arises. Unity is present at each step of the A1, appearing as a motivating and substantiating factor at the smallest and largest scales of Grassmann's project. It can be argued that Grassmann uses the thesis of his Extension Theory, which provides a mathematical framework for extensive magnitudes, as an analogy for his entire mathematical project. The various components of Grassmann’s mathematicsgaintheir truth in imitation of an extensive magnitude. In other words, the structural and dialectical components of Grassmann’s arguments embody the form of the extended line, Grassmann’s mathematical object of study. This is elucidated through a study of Grassmann’s style of argumentation, and how he describes one can arrive at ‘real’ and ‘formal’ truths. Unityarisesin the structures and methods employed in the A1, and then Grassmann's description of the 'scientific quality' and the variety of applications the Extension Theory. Here, a background on 17th century geometry will be presented to situate Grassmann's mathematics in its intellectual context. Then, a detailed description of Grassmann's conception of the extended line will be
presented, followed by a detailing of the similarities betweenGrassmann'sworkandthefeatures ofanextendedline.
By the time Hermann Grassmann published the A1, the authority of geometry had been cast completely into doubt (Lewis 2011, 109). Stemming from the interrogation ofEuclid’sfifth axiom, which investigates the nature of parallel lines, mathematicians in the nineteenth century began to propose alternatives to Euclidean geometry (Mario Livio 2009, 150). The position that geometry elucidated fundamental truthsofnature,heldbymanyeighteenthcenturythinkerssuch as Immanuel Kant and even David Hume, was thrown into question by these alternative geometries(Livio2009,151).
In his paper “Extension and Measurement: A constructivist program from Leibniz to Grassmann”, Erik C. Banks situates the A1 withinacenturies-longprojecttoaddresstheissueof extension. Extension, through the description of various thinkers, has generally been defined as continuous apartness, like the length of an object or a physical distance. Grassmann describes extension in his introduction, stating “with the extensive magnitude thereprevailstheseparation of elements that are indeed unified insofar as they formasinglemagnitude,butwhichconstitute that magnitude precisely in their mutual separation.” (Grassman 1844, 27) This most notably describes our intuition of space, in which we observe extended surfaces, but can be applied to other areas of measurement, likethedurationoftimeorthestagesofaprocess(Banks2013,20). This is opposed to the notion of an ‘intensive magnitude’, which represents magnitudes as an intensity (i.e. temperature). Although extension seems like an intuitive, fundamental feature of reality, Banks notes that mathematics before the A1 did not differentiate between extensive and
intensive magnitudes (2013, 20). This is at the crux of the issue of extension, as thinkers like ReneDescartes,GottfriedWilhelmLeibniz,andKantdisputethe fundamental-ness ofextension.
The first edition of the A1, describes the characteristics of hisnewformofalgebrawhich was specifically undertaken to solving the issue of extension in geometry Banks states, “Grassmann claimed that because his geometric algebra described abstract entities and relations at a level prior to extension, they could be used to analyze the concept of extension, where sensory human visualizations could no longer reach.” (2013, 21) He attempted to develop his branch of mathematics solely through reason, a method which would escape any assumptions about the fundamental nature of reality. Grassmann does not even term his Extension Theory a branch of geometry, as geometry assumes the existence of extended space, and thus, is not a purely abstractdiscipline(1844,24).Theabstractnessofhismethod,however,callsintoquestion the fundamental-ness of the relations he derives between geometric identities. If the Extension Theory had been developed completely separately from any empirical data, what leads Grassmann to believe it can be used to treat empirical problems? Grassmann’s method suggests that he would take asimilarapproachtoHenriPoincaré,inwhichgeometricalmodelsaremerely conventions – the geometrist simply chooses the model that proves most useful in their specific case. (Livio 2009, 161) Yet, the language Grassmann usestodescribehistheorysuggeststhathe viewstheworkinhisA1 asmorethanageometricconstruction.
In the forward to the first edition of the A1, Grassmann presents his apologetics to Extension Theory. He states, “the truth demands its rights. It is not this work that brings it into existence or recognition: it has its essence and existence in itself, and it is abetrayalofthetruth
to minimizeitsjustclaimsfromfalsemodesty.”(Grassmann1844,16)Here,Grassmannrefersto his theory as an entity that exists separately from his work in the A1, describing it as 'truth' that can only be contradicted by incorrect theories and assertions. This is furthered by Grassmann's categorization of the branches of mathematics, which stem from the possible combinations of two sets of mathematical dichotomies: discrete mathematics is opposed to continuous mathematics, andalgebraicsystemsareopposedtocombinatorialsystems(Grassmann1844,27).
The Extension Theory, according to Grassmann, articulates the fourth combination, which combines continuous and combinatorial (1844, 27). The other three combinations had already been articulated and, thus, the mathematics of extensive magnitudeswasboundtobedeveloped, if not by Grassmann, then by another mathematician. What leads Grassmann, then, to assert the his Extension Theoryasafundamentaltruth?Theanswersuggestedhereisthatthetheory’struth comesfromtheitsgroundingintheformoftheextendedline.
The philosophical introduction to the A1 starts from first principles, as Grassmann describes the various routes for arriving at philosophical and mathematical conclusions. He states, “The principal division of sciences is into real and formal. The real representtheexistent in thought as existing independently of thought, and theirtruthconsistsinthecorrespondenceof the thought with that existent. The formal on the other hand have as their object what has been produced by thought alone, and their truth consists in the correspondence between the thought processes themselves.” (Grassmann 1844, 23) The 'formal' science Grassmann describes here is abstract knowledge, based solely in the intellect: "proof in the formal science does not extend beyond the sphere of thought."(Grassmann1844,23)The'real'isempiricalknowledge,whichis
closely tied to physical objects. For each of these cases, he states "their truth consists in the correspondence"betweenthetwosubjects(eitherbetweentwothoughtsorbetweenanobjectand the thoughtconcerningsaidobject)(Grassmann1844,23).Heidentifiesthelocationoftruth,ina line of reasoning, as the 'correspondence' between the two initial components. On this process, the correspondence during the formation of a 'formal' postulate, he states, "the opposition between equal and different is also fluid [...] twodifferentideasarealreadyequalinsofarasthey are conjoined by the activity of relating them." (Grassmann 1844, 26) The process of scientific reasoning, as Grassmann depicts it, isintheformofanextensivemagnitude.Hestates,"withthe extensive magnitude there prevails the separation of elements that are indeed unified insofar as they form a single magnitude, but which constitute that magnitude precisely in their mutual separation." (Grassmann 1844, 27) In the same way, the truth, in Grassmann's model for scientific reasoning, comes from the unification of separate components. Knowledge cannot be arrived at through a summation or reconciliation oftwodifferentthoughts,rather,syllogistically, "the tension between contrasting pairs [determines] theconcepts."(Lewis2003,21)Itisbecause eachthoughtmaintainsitsuniqueidentitythatknowledgeisproducedintheirrelation.
The extended line is also mimicked by the structure Grassmann argues scientific reasoning should take. In the forward to the second edition of the A1, Grassmann addressed the failure of the first publication of his Extension Theory. He states, it cannot be attributed to the contentofthemathematics, rather, I know the reason thereof is found only in the rigorously scientific method of treatment, starting from the most primitive concepts. Such a method of treatment requires not merely an incidental appreciation of this or that result, but a complete immersion in the fundamental ideas and, based on this foundation, a consistent conceptionofthewholestructure"(Grassmann1844,19).
For Grassmann, a knowledge of the particular conclusions that he arrives at through the reasoning in the A1 is not sufficient. In order to grasp the significance of the particular conclusions, one requires an understanding of the mathematical endeavor as a whole; "a full appreciation of [the] individual parts is supported by an overview of the whole." (Grassmann 1844, 19) His complaint above indicates that Grassmann believed his readers were solely engaging with his mathematical axioms, excluding the entirety of his philosophical project, this being the reason why the A1 did not succeed. This isdemonstratedinalettertoMöbiusin1845, in which the mathematician E.F.ApeltconsiderstheformofmultiplicationinExtensionTheory.
In Grassmann's new branch of algebra, multiplication is no longer 'commutative', meaning the orderinwhichtermsaremultipliedimpactsthevalueoftheirproduct(Lewis2003,25):
From this discrepancy, Apelt concludes, "It seems to me that a false philosophy of mathematics is at the bottom of it. [...] Grassmann 1894–1911 (vol. 3, part 2, p. 101)" (Lewis 2003, 25). In consideration of the particular conclusions alone, and an ignorance of the underlying method and system, is what leadsApelttodismisstheparticularrelationsGrassmann presentsintheA1.
In the philosophical preface to the Extension Theory, this concept is furthered, as Grassmann argues for a specific method of mathematical pedagogy. He laments for the inadequacy of the standard Euclidean "axiom–definition–theorem–proof" style of presentation, arguingthatitlacksanoverview(Lewis2003,19).Hestates,
"we add the scientific quality to a method of treatment whenthereaderis,onone hand, led by it necessarily to the recognition of each individual truth, and, on the other, is put in the position at each point of the development of seeing the directionoffurtherprogress."(Grassmann1884,30)
This method of presentation is twofold: it requires a continual arrival at differing, individual mathematical relations, in tandem with an acknowledgement of the particulars' continuous fulfillment of anoverarchingidea.This'dominantidea'isessentialtotheworkas"Onecannotbe ledtoadesiredresultbyblindcombinations"(Grassmann1844,31).
This process can bedirectlycomparedtoGrassmann'sdescriptionoftheextendedline.In the 'Exposition of the concept of Extension Theory' in Grassmann's philosophical preface, he states, "the extensive form is the collection of all elements into which the generating element is transformed by a continuous evolution." (Grassmann 1844, 29) According to Grassmann, however, the differing elements "must be produced according to a law if it is to have a specific resultant" (Grassmann 1844, 29) Without a direction, the identity of the particular elements that make up the extended line "would be completely indeterminate" (Grassmann 1844, 29). We can take the extended line produced in a graphical representation of as an example. �� = sin��������
The individual coordinates that make up the extended sine wave gain their values from an overarchingsinefunction.
This language is eerily similar to the language Grassmann uses to describe his twofold method of mathematical presentation. Recall: "there occurs a continual reflection about the course of development as the truths are discovered; a characteristic line of thought develops in the reader about the procedure followed and about the idea lying at thefoundationofthewhole; and this line of thought forms the true nucleus and spirit of his activity, while the consistent
detailing of the truths is only the embodiment of that idea." (Grassmann 1844, 32) As the individual components of the extendedlineareproduced,theiridentitydeterminedbyadirecting law, the individual mathematical particular truths, in Grassmann's mathematical structure, is producedandruledbyaspecific'dominantidea'.Grassmannmaintainsthatthispropermethodof presentation is equally important as the mathematical content,"perfectingthemethodisasmuch the job of a mathematician as getting the proofsright."(Lewis2003,34)ForGrassmann,awork can only be 'scientific' if itcanconveythesignificanceandjustificationofitscontentatthesame time as it conveys the individual mathematical relations. The poor receptionoftheA1 wasproof that truth cannot be attained throughtheconsiderationoftheconclusionsofatheory,butthrough a twofold progression through stages in which the reader assumed the position of a 'discoverer' (Lewis2003,20).
The theme of unity also presents itself in the various practical applications of Grassmann's Extension Theory. Although the theory was originally meant to treat geometric problems, Grassmann describes how he haphazardly stumbled upon a variety of empirical disciplines that he would be able to treat using his calculus (Grassmann 1844, 10). The first example of this appears in the forward when Grassmann attempts to apply his algebra to the existing mathematics describing tides. He states, "When I combined this concept of the product with [mathematics] previously established for the sum, the most striking harmony resulted." (Grassmann 1844, 9) Grassmann provides an explanation for this in his discussion of mathematics and philosophy, stating,"Sincebothmathematicsandphilosophyaresciencesinthe strictest sense, so must the methods in both have something in common which makesthemthus
scientific." (Grassmann 1844, 30) The sundry applications of Extension Theory, although they are distinguished fromeachother,areunitedbytheirpossessionofthis'scientificquality'.Thisis what allows Extension Theory, for Grassmann, to apply to other scientific fields. As Lewis puts it, "the justification of its method thusdependsinadialecticalfashiononthesamemethodbeing used in other branches of mathematics and in the other sciences." (2011, 110) The ability of the Extension theory to apply to the practical disciplines comes from the commonality of their methods.
Lewis, in his 2011 paper titled 'The Divine Truth of Mathematics and the Origins of Linear Algebra', analyzes the influence of the theologian Friedrich Schleiermacher on Grassmann's A1. He first presents a summary of Dialektik, Schleiermacher’s treatise on the reconciliation of science and religion.Throughthe Dialektik,Schleiermacherarguesarelativistic approach to knowledge: in thinking of an object, said object is already put in relation to other objects. He arrives at the conclusion that ‘there is in actuality no pure knowledge, rather only different concentric spheres of commonality of methods and principles”, where “particular knowledge can onlybecompletedthroughitsrelationtothewhole”(Lewis2011,113-114)Thus, for Schleiermacher, "the measure of truth or knowledge in thought is, therefore, its degree of correspondencewiththeouterentitiestowhichitrefers."(Lewis2011,113)
The first edition of the A1, is titled, in its English translation as, “The Calculus of Extension”, “a new branch of mathematics elucidated through applications totheotherbranches of mathematics as well as to statics, mechanics, the theory of magnetism and crystallography.” (Lewis 2011, 109, 110)This title is telling: the abstract relations Grassmann presents in the A1
must necessarily be presented alongside its applications in order to assert their validity Here, Grassmann is demonstrating the truth of the Extension Theory by presenting the level of correspondence it has with other sciences, this correspondence provided by their shared 'scientific quality'. Again, the parallel to Grassmann'sdescriptionoftheextendedlineisclear:an extended line is comprised of separate entities united through a 'dominant idea', their correspondencethroughthedominantideaiswhatproducestheextendedline.
As we move from the smallest scale of Grassmann's reasoning, through the structure of Grassmann's arguments, to the relation of Extension Theory to practical disciplines, the analogy to the extended line continually appears. Grassmann's entire scientific content depends on a dialectical tension between ideas at a fundamental level. His method of instruction follows a twofold process of continual discoveryofindividualtruths,directedbyanoverarchingview.The manifold applications of Extension Theory are united, and thus in correspondence with each other, through a shared 'scientific quality'. In each of these cases, as a component imitates the form of an extended line, they simultaneously gain their validity. A true evaluation of the Ausdehnungslehre, as Grassmann continually stresses, requires a reader's fullimmersionintohis interconnectedsystemofcomponents.
WorksCited
Banks,ErikC.“ExtensionandMeasurement:AConstructivistProgramfromLeibnizto Grassmann.”Studiesinhistoryandphilosophyofscience.PartA44,no.1(2013):20–31.
Grassmann,Hermann. A New Branch of Mathematics : The “Ausdehnungslehre” of 1844 and Other Works.OpenCourt,1995.
Lewis,AlbertC.“TheDivineTruthofMathematicsandtheOriginsofLinearAlgebra.”
Theology and Science,vol.9,no.1,2011,pp.109–20, https://doi.org/10.1080/14746700.2011.547012.
Lewis,AlbertC.“TheUnityofLogic,PedagogyandFoundationsinGrassmann’sMathematical Work.” History and Philosophy of Logic,vol.25,no.1,2004,pp.15–36, https://doi.org/10.1080/01445340310001613824.
Livio,Mario. Is God a Mathematician? 1stSimon&Schusterhardcovered,2010.,Simon& Schuster,2009.
KnowThyNature: OdinastheCultivatorofSpiritandSurplusKnowledge
JamesGodsall
“The wisdom of nature is the nature of wisdom.” These words came from my late grandfather, Terry (died March 28, 2024). His conception of the cosmosmirrorsthosewhohave immersed themselves in the wilderness, a world full of meaning and signs. The complexity of nature has within it an expanse of unknown knowledge, a wholeness of perspective which is imminent, yet unfathomable to the human mind. Attempting to reconcile the individual withthe enormity of the unknown is a fundamental aspect of human identity. Unlike the modern conception of scientific rationalism and individualism, which privileges humanity’s “knowingness” as a form of elevated difference, those who lived close to nature believed in 73 greater possibilities of communion with thechthonicsphere.Likemygrandfather,theNorsesaw the wisdom of nature and the inner qualities ofhumanities’animalself.TheNorsebelievedthey co-existed within a fluid ecosystem, and that their perspective and knowledge was informed by their connection tothisunconsciousnature,ratherthantranscendingit.InspiredbyPeterStruck’s concept of surplus knowledge and Jungian notions of widened consciousness,theaggregationof awareness within the Norse world can be defined by how humans connectwiththewebofspirit within their cosmos. Embodied in theirchiefgod,Odin,Norsesurplusknowledgedevelopsfrom a type of psychic growth, a synthesis which comes from confronting and connecting with humanity’screaturelyspirit,the flygjur,asaformofnaturalwisdom.
73 PeterStruck, Divination and Human Nature,(PrincetonUniversityPress,2016),2
To help understand the Norse perspective, Carl Jung and Peter Struck help construct a framework of analysis.Theirtheoriescomplementoneanotherwhenconsideringthecommunion between layers of reality: the conscious and unconscious on a personal and social scale. Carl Jung’s map of the human psyche places the individual’s conscious ego in a vast web of hidden influences found in the collective unconscious,“thechthonicportionofthepsyche which is attached to nature.” The unconscious enables the ego to focus by holding back “repressed 74 memories and undeveloped possibilities.” These possibilities are tied to phenomena that Peter 75 Struck describes in his axiom: “Our ability to know exceeds our capacity to understand that ability ” Similar to Jung, Struck sees human beings as “composite creatures,” part
76 “knowingness,” an intelligence which borders the divine, and part “creaturely,” stemming from our bodily nature. The layered experience in which humans make sense of the world produces 77 what Struck calls “surplus knowledge,” or, in Jung’s case, “widened consciousness,” in which 78 the individualachievescommunionwithawidersenseofconsciousness,transcendingtheirsense of self into an elevated state of cognition where the individual is “more than the sum of their parts,” attaining an “indissoluble communion with the worldatlarge.” Thisabilitytodrawon
79 80 the mysterious knowledge of the unconscious is inherent to human nature, and cultures throughout history have attempted to make sense of this experience in a varietyofways,largely
74 MarleighM Poulsen,“TheTrickster’sFunctioninHealingAnxiety”(master’sthesis,PacificaGraduateInstitute, 2024),11
75 Poulsen,11.
76 Struck,15.
77 Struck,2.
78 Poulsen,12
79 Struck,15
80 Poulsen,12
through their conception of whether this awareness is drawn from humanity’s connection to natureoritsdistancefromit.
Odin’s insatiable quest for greater knowledge offers the Norse perspective on this awareness. With characteristics ranging “from cold cynicism to Dionysian enthusiasm, from ferocity to ecstasy,” Odin is a liminal and capriciousfigure,butRichardL.AuldseesOdinasa
81 radically unitary bridge between dualistic poles of the human mind and the Norse cosmos.
Following the logic of Jung’s protégé, Erich Neumann, the human psyche consists of two psychological states, onebeingthe“unconsciousmindwithitsintuitivethroughprocess,”termed “matriarchal,” and the other which is organized around rational laws and the denial of the matriarchal world, which is “patriarchal.” These two states are antagonistic to one another,but
82 corollary is necessary to stave off psychic illness which comes from an overindulgence in the prejudice of one kind of perspective. Odin as “the purveyor of knowledgefromonepoletothe
83 other,”actsasagodofsynthesis,enablinganintegratingbondlinkingthetwoopposinghalvesof the psyche. This conception of Odin makes sense from a Jungian perspective. In Marleigh M.
84 Poulsen’s thesis “The Trickster’s Function in HealingandAnxiety,”theJungianarchetypeofthe “trickster” is both “bestial and divine,” who resides in the liminal space. Odin, like other 85 tricksters,blursboundaries,creatingcommunicationbetweenopposingpolaritiesofthepsyche.
81 RichardL.Auld,“ThePsychologicalandMythicUnityoftheGod,Óđinn,” Numen 23,Fasc.2(1976):146)
82 Auld,147-8.
83 Auld,148
84 Auld,147
85 Poulsen,22
An analysis of Norse Mythology corroborates Odin’s position of synthesis. Catalyzedby an “insatiable, perpetual appetite” for knowledge, which is his nature, Auld follows Neumann 86 in charting Odin’s critical moments of knowledge aggregation as a form of initiation, beginning in the matriarchal and progressively moving into patriarchal awareness. While Odin draws on many aspects of the chthonic world,death,as“therepositoryofalllife,butalsotherepositoryof all knowledge”, acts as the symbol “ par excellence of the unconscious mind.” There are many 87 episodes in which Odin communicates with the dead for information, and his moments of self-sacrifice act asthecatalystsforpsychicgrowth.ThemostsignificantmomenttoNeumannis Odin’s hanging on the world tree, Yggdrasil, as depicted in the Hávamál. Odin’s sacrifice of himself to himself on the tree of life exemplifies communion with the matriarchal “Great Goddess,” the process by which awareness is gained through “sacrifice and suffering [as] the prerequisites of transformation,” and he partakes in her divineessenceasthe“giver”ofwisdom.
When Odin attains knowledge of the runes, it is a gift which comes from the goddess “of all
88 growth, psychic as well as physical.” Despite the wisdom gained through this state of 89 possession, Auld and Neumann do not award this communion with unconscious nature an ascendent position within the Norse cosmos. For Auld, Odin’s “pinnacle” is found in his movement into “higher masculinity,” found in the wakeful torture of the Grimnismal,inwhich 90 he himself becomes the “self-sufficient” source ofhisownoracle. Odin’s“highestcapabilities” 91
86 Poulsen,32.
87 Auld,150.
88 Auld,151.
89 Auld,156
90 Auld,156
91 Auld,156
come from the aggregation of conscious awareness, gaining a grip on nature through ever
92 greater independence from it. Through this assessment, Odin’s liminal movement as a trickster andapurveyorofawarenessrisesfromtheunconsciousintotheconscious.
While this Jungian analysis of Odin is correct in portraying his liminality, it fails to capture the Norse perspective of the unconscious, and thus comes to the wrong conclusion. For the Norse, animality informs the relationship between human consciousness and the creaturely self. Theysawthemselvesintermsoftheirrelationshiptothewiderecosystemofthecosmosand not their distance from it, as “each creature has a role that lends itself to the continuation of Yggdrasil, the family tree.” Humanity was part ofalargerkinshipwithinnature,andasenseof
93 self came from greater proximity to their creaturely unconscious. This sense of fluidity and community, between the human and the animal world, features strongly in how they view divinity. While the Norse identity was morecloselyassociatedwiththe Aesir,thehumanoidclan of gods which Odin led as king, the cosmos itself was populated and motivated by divine animals. Across Yggdrasil, “the most important elements of the tree that contains all the worlds [...] pertained to animals,” and each animal was known for their own sphere of wisdom, and existed for their own means, beyond the humanandeventhe Aesir’sservice. Thenaturalworld 94 was a divine ecosystem, and the realm of intelligence and knowledge wasbynomeansreserved tohumanorgodlyabstractions.
92 Auld,157.
93 NicoleDavidow,“God,Women,Wolves,andMen:Species,Gender,andKinshipinNorseMythandSaga,” (master’sthesis,GeorgetownUniversity,2023),19
94 Davidow,18
On the contrary,thegreaterthedistancebetweenthehumanandanimalworld,thegreater the former’s ignorance. Each person constructed their ‘self’ intermsoftheir flygjur,aprotective animal spirit which attached itself to individuals and guided them until death. Rather than 95 thinking through abstractions, for the Norse, “identity and selfhood depend largely on this association with the animal world. Entirefamiliesweredefinedbyasingleancestor'sassociation with a bear, wolf, or bird.” The flygjur tied humanity to theworldaroundthem.Itreflectedthe 96 facttheNorsedidnotoperatethroughanoppositionalbinarybetweenthehumanandnaturalself, but, rather, perceived a fundamentally interconnected relationship. Greater attunement to the animal world offered surplus knowledge and widened awareness. Appearing in dreams, the animal-self acted as spirit guides, conveying messages from the unconscious world beyond. In 97 The Saga of the Volsungs,duringthenightofastorm,Gudrundreamsofahawkapproachingher, which her servant recognizes as the appearance of an animal flygjur, heralding a man yet unknown. Gudrun dreams again later on of a stag, and a wolf cub spattered with the blood of
98 her brother, heralding her first husband Sigurd as the Stag and her second husband, Atli, as the wolf who will bring her pain. In both cases the flygjur crucially comes at a time of change, a 99 moment of fate and crisis, informing individuals of who and what is to come. As part of a 100 Norse view of fatalism,naturecomeswithitsownnecessities,andit'snottheroleofhumanityto understandit,buttoreconciletheirnature.
95 Davidow,19.
96 Davidow,30.
97 Davidow,29.
98 Davidow,30-1
99 Davidow,31
100 Davidow,32
Odin is not the god of consciousness,butofspiritualanimality Whenheandhisbrothers created the first humans, Ask and Embla, “weak [and] fateless” driftwood, they each imbued a differentqualityintothesevirginbeings:“Odingavethembreath,/Honirgavethemsouls,/Loth gave them hair / and human faces.” Souls are personal things, a subjective consciousness, 101 while Loth’s hamr, outer forms, are only skin deep. Odin’s imbuement of breath, pneuma,isthe gift of spirit, humanity’s sympathetic communion with life and nature. Odin ties humanity to their flygjur Human beings who can shed their consciousness and their hamr are said to have tasted Odin’s gift, gaining greater communion and awareness with nature. Berserkrs and Úlfhednars, were fierce warriors who could abandon their consciousness and enter a trance of animality, like a bear or wolf respectively, channeling an animality which empowers them, commanding fear and respect. Odin, whose name derives from wuot ‘fury,’ or óðr ‘furious,’
102 103 represents the state of possession, a communion with humanity’s nature and flygjur. Skaldic
104 poets were said to be aroused by Odin, imbibingthegiftofbloodmeadbrewedfromthefleshof the wisest god, Kvasir, providing them “poetic imagination originating in spittle and blood.”105 Odin disrupts the consciousness, drawing out an awareness which is otherwise present in the “[k]nowledge found in flesh and blood.” In the myth of Sigurd and the dragon Fafnir, Sigurd 106 unlocks this communion on his own terms by consuming the heart and the blood of the dragon.
101 JacksonCrawford, The Poetic Edda: Stories of the Norse Gods and Heroes (Cambridge:HackettPublishing CompanyInc,2015),6
102 Davidow,40.
103 Ahl,158.
104 WilliamSayers,“TheMythologicalRavensHuginnandMuninn:InterrogatorsoftheNewlySlain”(Studia Linguistica Universitatis Iagellonicae Cracoviensis 139,no 2,2022),148
105 Sayers,150
106 Sayers,150
When the serpent's blood touched histongue,hecouldunderstandthelanguageofthebirds,who began to advise him on imminent threats on his horizon. Rather than the kind of human 107 interpretation found in augury, Sigurd is in direct communication with nature. It's not the birds who havechanged,it'sSigurdwhohasgainedtheabilitytounderstandanimalintelligence. For 108 the Norse, the nature of surplus knowledge and its achievement comes from thinking like animals,communicatingwithnature,andsheddingtheveilofhumanunderstanding.
Odin’s role in this natural order is to cultivate spirit and greater animality In their study on the role of tricksters andthewilderness,MarleighM.Poulsenelaboratesthetrickster’srolein psychic growth through confrontation with the unconscious. Tricksters blur boundaries, disruptingthesecurityoftheconsciousandsowanxiety,“thebeckoningcalloftheunconscious.”
Odin, the mercurial god ofmanynames,inspiresthisanxiety,aseverymomentofanxietyand
109 crisis offers “the opportunity tomeetinnerqualitiesthat‘exceeds[one’s]wildestdreams.’” An 110 individual’s flygjur,thesourceoftheirstrengthandawareness,appearsvisiblyintimesofchange and crisis, whether awake or in dreams. Critically, these spirits appear when an individual, or 111 their kin, is under threat and “requires growth.” Flygjur represent surplus knowledge, a genie 112 ofsorts,whichhoversovertheshoulderandinspirespsychicgrowth.Odinactsasitscatalyst.
Odin’s reputation for being untrustworthy and capricious thus serves a purpose, and his actions, whether benign orviolent,causedisruptiontodrawoutthestrengthofspirit.Thiscanbe
107 Crawford,248.
108 Davidow,38.
109 Poulsen,15.
110 Poulsen,2
111 Davidow,31
112 Davidow,32
seen when he taunts his son, Thor, in a flyting (a lyrical battle of insults). Disguised as an old ferryman, Odin holds no apparent advantages over the god of Thunder, but his insults and trickery cause Thor to lose his composure. Like other tricksters, Odin plays games to “flip constructs on their head,” using cheek and humour to upset self-control, testing his son’s 113 character and resolve, rather than the strength of his arm. In the Grimnismal, Odin reveals his nature to Geirroth, a man who lost his the god’s favour by torturing him, ratherthanwelcoming him in as a guest in disguise. He is “Wisdom-Granter, […] Waker and Killer, […] Odin is my name. / But before they called me Terror,” he hasneverbeenknownbyjustonename,andthese names are “for [him] alone.” Seeking tocontrol,Geirrothmadethefatefulerrorofchoosingto 114 “panic and bind the trickster,” suppressing change instead of allowing commerce with accident. Odin speaks on behalf of Geirroth’swiseranimality,“Iknow your lifehasended/Yourguardian spirits are anxious, / they see Odinherebeforeyou.” Geirroth’s flygjur recognizeOdin,evenif 115 he consciously cannot. His human eyesdeceivehim.Odinisaterrifyingrevelationofnature,the fury of animality, and the communicator offate.Geirrothdies,notforhislackofknowledge,but becauseofhislackofnaturalwisdom.
Knowledge is susceptible to disruption, but wisdom continually grows. The Norse recognized that there exists a consistent truth beyond the world of human awareness, a greater awareness that defies reason. Awareness was not defined by the consciousnessoftheindividual, or their sensual experience of hamr “shape,” which surrounds it,butthrough flygjur,thespiritat the heart of all natural things. The divine ecosystem of Norse cosmologywasasysteminandof
113 Poulsen,27
114 Crawford,70-71
115 Crawford,71
itself, an intelligence which could be understood only through greater communion with it. Odin acts as a force of disruption, bringing out the spirit by confronting the human psyche’s limitations. There is always a greater awareness beyond human consciousness. To fostersurplus knowledgeandagreaterawareness,individualsmustfindthewildernesswithintheirownnature.
Bibliography
Auld,RichardL.“ThePsychologicalandMythicUnityoftheGod,Óđinn.” Numen,Vol23. Fasc.2.(Aug.1976),pp145-160.https://www.jstor.org/stable/3269665
Crawford,Jackson. The Poetic Edda: Stories of the Norse Gods and Heroes.Cambridge:Hackett PublishingCompanyInc.2015
Davidow,Nicole.“God,Women,Wolves,andMen:Species,Gender,andKinshipinNorseMyth andSaga.”Master’sthesis.GeorgetownUniversity,2023. https://ezproxy.library.dal.ca/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/go d-women-wolves-men-species-gender-kinship-norse/docview/2909990568/se-2.
Poulsen,Marleigh.M.“TheTrickster’sFunctioninHealingAnxiety.”Master’sthesis,Pacifica GraduateInstitute,2024.
https://ezproxy.library.dal.ca/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/tric ksters-function-healing-anxiety/docview/2937238327/se-2.
Sayers,William.“TheMythologicalNorseRavensHuginnandMuninn:Interrogatorsofthe
NewlySlain.” Studia Linguistica Universitatis Iagellonicae Cracoviensis 139,no.2 (2022):143-155.
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Struck,Peter. Divination and Human Nature.PrincetonUniversityPress,2016.
ACallforAmbiguity: PreciadoonBlurringGenderandForm
SophiaTaylor
The bio-hacking revolution explored in Paul Preciado’s Testo Junkie provides a how-to guide for the radical reclamation of transgender medicine. Preciado’s search for “hormonal justice” depicts his transformation from a medical and legal subject into a lab rat of his own 116 making. He describes his experience appropriating the “poison bullets” of unlicensed testosterone through TESTOGEL and howhenowusesitasamedicine.Throughoutliningthe 117 monopoly that pharmaceutical andsurgicalenterpriseshaveoverthetransgendercommunityand the performance of gender, he describes a vision of the future that gives political significance back to consumers of hormones. However, Preciado also walks the line between auto-experimentation and addiction, and illustrates the delicate balance between medical liberation and dependency. Through his interwoven narrative styles, he begs his audience to accept and indulge in formlessness, blurring the line between scientist and subject, male and female,medicandaddict,throughtheseizureofsexhormonesas“freebiocodes.” 118
Preciado’s term “technogender” is rooted in the history of the term “gender,” a modern concept that proliferated in the 1940s through themedicalandtherapeuticindustries. Preciado 119 partially attributes the standardization of gender to John Money, a sexologist who surgically altered intersexinfantstofitthegenderednormativityofeithermaleorfemale. Preciadowrites120
116 PaulPreciado, Testo Junkie: Sex, Drugs, and Biopolitics in the Pharmacopornographic Era.(NewYork:Feminist Press2016),p.140.
117 Preciado, Testo Junkie,p.55.
118 Preciado, Testo Junkie,p 55
119 Preciado, Testo Junkie,p 99
120 Preciado, Testo Junkie,p 101
that perception has driven gender categories, and for a body to be visible, it must decisively fit within a male or female gender To counteract this history, he embarksonamedicalprojectto
121 revise normative gender, as to him, gender is inherently a performance. When describingJudith Butler’s critique of gender theory, he writes, “gender is a system of rules, conventions, social norms,andinstitutionalpracticesthatperformativelyproducethesubjecttheyclaimtodescribe.”
However, he expands upon her definition by writing, “[g]ender is an operational program 122 capable of triggering a proliferation of sensory perceptions under the form of affects, desires, actions, beliefs, and identities.” Under this modified definition, gender is still rooted in visual 123 perception and association of gendered characteristics, as proliferated by Money However, the language of programming also sends a message of the potential to reprogram, orrather,editthe “biocode.”124
As a reflection of his definition of gender, Preciado’s work with testosterone seeks to remove himself from being an easily identifiable subject by systems of power. His source of testosterone is TESTOGEL, although the drug’s label asserts that it is meant only for adult, heterosexual males. By using this product without being a heterosexual or cis-genderedmale,
125 Preciado subverts medical and legal gender standardization. Furthermore, he describes how testosterone does not change the way that others perceive his gender. This implies a more 126 radical form of experimentation, as it decentralizes external perception in fortifying one’s gender identity He additionally writes, “[w]hat would happen if a large proportion of cis-females began collectively self-administering enough doses of testosterone to be socially
121 Preciado, Testo Junkie,p.102.
122 Preciado, Testo Junkie, p.110.
123 Preciado, Testo Junkie, p.117.
124 Preciado,TestoJunkie,p 394
125 Preciado, Testo Junkie, pp 58-61
126 Preciado, Testo Junkie, p 141
identified as males?” This subversive language is a core component of whattransformsthese 127 sections on his personal experience with testosterone into revolutionary guides. Preciado calls on those unfulfilled by current medical systems and touts self-experimentation as a viable pathwayforbothcisgenderandtransgenderliberation.
In “Regulating Healthy Gender: Surgical Body Modification among Transgender and Cisgender Consumers,” Elroi Windsor conducts research on the experiencesoftransgenderand cisgender people regarding gender–affirming surgery. He finds that the psychological and physical pains transgender andcisgenderpeoplefacearequitesimilar,asbothareequallylikely to “report mild discomfort as well as severe dysphoria.” This highlights how feelings of 128 inadequate gender performativity are not an issue unique to transgender people, as “[cisgendered people] still believed surgery could help enhance their gender expressions, help them conform to normativegenderedembodiment.” Thisfollowsthetheorythatallbodiesare129 altered and performing, and everyday modifications, such as wearing deodorant or scented lotion, often follow gender expectations. Preciado also explores this in his analysis of 130
TESTOGEL, as he ruminates onthepurposeofsuchaproductforacis-genderedmale,bywhat criteria they are deemed deficient in testosterone, and if their maleness is defined on a chromosomal, genital, or legal basis. However, despite the similarities between the cisgender 131 and transgender search for gender-affirmation, Windsor finds that the two groups are treated significantly different in their processes of obtaining medical care. Additional requirements,
127 Preciado, Testo Junkie, p.234.
128 ElroiWindsor,"RegulatingHealthyGender:SurgicalBodyModificationamongTransgenderandCisgender Consumers,"(Dissertation,GeorgiaStateUniversity,2011),p.101.
129 Windsor,"RegulatingHealthyGender,”p 111
130 Windsor,"RegulatingHealthyGender,”p 111
131 Preciado, Testo Junkie,p 60
such as age limitsandpsychotherapistassessments,arefoundtobeskewedtowardstransgender people, which emphasizes that transgender desires are subject to external approval. This is 132 what Preciado refers to when he writes about the medical regulation of transgender bodies and why he states,“Idonotwantthefemalegenderthathasbeenassignedtomeatbirth.Neitherdo I want the male gender that transsexual medicine can furnishandthatthestatewillawardmeif I behave the right way.” By recognizing the prejudiced and overly regulatory control of 133 transgendermedicalcare,Preciadofuelshisdesireforself-experimentation.
In “The Biodrag ofGenreinPaulB.Preciado’s Testo Junkie: Sex, Drugs, and Biopolitics in the Pharmacopornographic Era,” Sophie Jones explores Preciado’s refusal to be categorized as a form of“biodrag,”orrather,analternativetonormativegenderperformance. Jonesclaims134 the very form of Preciado’s book, as an amalgamation of pornography, personal anecdotes, and medical and social history, is representative of his ambiguous identity She writes, “genre becomes a way of organising a central tension in the book [...].” The tension in Preciado’s 135 project is illustrated by his “both/and” approach to gender and legal identity, as he writes, “I decide tokeepmylegalidentityasawomanandtotaketestosteronewithoutsubscribingtoasex change protocol.” He states that we must reappropriate technology as a form of revolution, 136 which extends from hormones into therealmofgenderexpression. Inthisway,Preciadoisnot137 advocating for a non-binary identity specifically, but rather asenseofpoliticalformlessnessthat
132 Windsor,"RegulatingHealthyGender,”pp 139-40
133 Preciado, Testo Junkie,p 138
134 SophieJones,“TheBiodragofGenreinPaulB.Preciado’sTestoJunkie:Sex,Drugs,andBiopoliticsinthe PharmacopornographicEra.” Feminist Encounters: A Journal of Critical Studies in Culture and Politics 2,no.2 (2018):2.
135 Jones,“TheBiodragofGenre,”p 1
136 Preciado, Testo Junkie,p 61
137 Preciado,TestoJunkie,p 344
138
comeswithappropriatingjuxtaposingidentities.
Preciado’s language of revolution additionally illustrates the delicate balance between medical experimentation and self-induced suffering. He writes, “[w]hen I take a dose of testosterone in gel form or inject it, what I’m actually giving myself is a chain of political signifiers.” This language of political significance is reflective of the overall messaging of 139 Testo Junkie, as Preciado also refers to those in his community rejecting the term “gender dysphorics” and instead adopting the terms “gender pirates” or “gender hackers.” This 140 terminology is expressive of freedom and the usurpation of government and regulation, with “gender hacking” also being referential to embracing the technology of the “pharmacopornographic era.” He furthermore reclaims the term “transexual,” which has been historically viewed as an offensive slur However, Preciado also uses terms indicative of being under control, whether internally or externally, writing, “[t]he human being is becoming a rodent.” Stephen Greer explores this by writing, “Preciado’s discourse slips [into] an account
141 of voluntary self-intoxication [...].” However, Preciado’s spiral into addiction is seen as a 142 side-effect of his project, evenashedescribeshiscontinuousbloodhaemorrhaging, attributing143 his addictions to sex and testosterone to his love of their formlessness. Preciado further writes that “gender identity, or pleasure are beyond the ken of the possible.” This points towardsthe 144 fluidity he longs to inhabit and the impossibility of fully externalizing his identity Thispassage also illustrates Preciado’s simultaneous experience as the liberated bio-hacker and addict to
138 Jones,“TheBiodragofGenre,”p 2
139 Preciado, Testo Junkie,p 139
140 Preciado, Testo Junkie,p.55.
141 Preciado, Testo Junkie,p.140.
142 Greer,Stephen.“GenderDrift:TestoJunkie,queerperformativityandmolecularbecoming.” Performance Research 23,no 7,(2018):9
143 Preciado, Testo Junkie,p 245
144 Preciado, Testo Junkie,p 253
testosterone,stuckinanendlesscycleofchasing“theformless.”145
Preciado’s account of form is romantic and complicated, and hepaintsanever-changing self-portrait to encapsulate notions of gender revolution. His approach is unique, as he does not instruct his audience to turnawayfromgendermedicinebutrathertoreappropriateandreformit through covert contemporary means. He writes, “[t]he pharmacopornographic body is not passive living matter but a techno-organic interface.” This isindicativeofthefluiditybetween 146 his gender performances, as he shifts between a legal cisgender subject and a queer medical experiment. He illustrates the prevalence of control in medicine, which is further analyzed 147 through Windsor’s study ontheauthorizationandlabellingofqueeridentities. JonesandGreer148 explore the form and style of Preciado’s work, highlighting the recurring themes of shifting binaries, whether it be through gender, literary stylings, or Preciado’s addiction to testosterone. As a culmination of medicalandsocialrevolution, Testo Junkie isacalltoembraceambiguityto evadenormativesystemsofpower,throughrepurposingitsweaponsofoppression.
145 Preciado, Testo Junkie,p.253.
146 Preciado, Testo Junkie,p 114
147 Preciado, Testo Junkie,p 61
148 Windsor,"RegulatingHealthyGender,”p140
Bibliography
Greer,Stephen.“GenderDrift:TestoJunkie,queerperformativityandmolecularbecoming.” PerformanceResearch23,no.7(2018):63–71.
https://doi.org/10.1080/13528165.2018.1557450.
Jones,SophieA.“TheBiodragofGenreinPaulB.Preciado’sTestoJunkie:Sex,Drugs,and BiopoliticsinthePharmacopornographicEra.”FeministEncounters:AJournalof CriticalStudiesinCultureandPolitics2,no.2(2018).
https://doi.org/10.20897/femenc/3887.
Preciado,PaulB.TestoJunkie:Sex,Drugs,andBiopoliticsinthePharmacopornographicEra. FeministPress,2016.
Windsor,ElroiJ.,"RegulatingHealthyGender:SurgicalBodyModificationamong TransgenderandCisgenderConsumers."PhDdiss.,GeorgiaStateUniversity,2011.
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